Estrangements (Phan AU)

Sacrifice

noun

       • the act of offering ceremonially to a deity; the slaughter of an animal (or person) to please a deity; the surrender of something valuable for the sake of something more important; loss without return; something sacrificed, an offering.

transitive verb

       • to slaughter or give up as a sacrifice; to give up for a higher good; to sell at a loss. 

At twenty-eight, Phil lives in an upscale loft reminiscent of the one he once shared with his mother - clean surfaces and a modern design, metallic edges and sleek grey walls - and heads off every day to work for the man who filled the father figure role every other week in his childhood. He's comfortable, doesn't have cause to want for anything, and he's content with the way his life has worked itself out.

Sometimes he's lonely, especially when he wakes early and can't fall back to sleep, and sometimes he feels bored by the predictable unoriginality that spans through his days, but he's never really unhappy. He has the money to care for himself and the means to do so, has people he loves and admires and a respectable career, and there's no cause for discontent when he's naturally the kind of person to base his happiness off of his surroundings.

He isn't dumpster-diving for scraps or covering up bruises or fretting over making ends meet, so it really makes no sense for the odd feeling that sometimes overtakes him to exist.

Which doesn't explain why his heartbeat skyrockets in excitement and the odd feeling cocoons into fluttering butterflies of hope when his boss calls him into his office after hours one day on the basis of having a special task for him. Or the grin that fights to overtake his face when the words 'highly sensitive' and 'important' come up.